Chicago and Jazz

“Jazz is the type of music that can absorb so many things and still be jazz.” ~ Sonny Rollins

The holiday season has begun and here I am catching up on my blogging! I have been away from blogging for 3 weeks and I finally got the time this weekend to post about my live jazz music experience!

Thanksgiving Break was the first true ‘break’ for AB and me as we took off to Chicago to visit our close friends to relax and unwind. Having heard tons about jazz and blues music that Chicago is so famous for we headed to this Jazz club that had live jazz music with renowned local jazz bands performing on certain nights.

The romantic story of how Jazz music came to Chicago involves musicians going north on the Mississippi after Storyville district of New Orleans closed down in 1917. However, some historians do present the hard truth. Jazz musicians travelled from south to north as a part of the mass movement of African-Americans known as ‘The Great Migration’. Sadly but truly, the reasons for this movement were failure in harvest of crops and racism and discrimination of the group in the South. Also, this was the time of World War I and the north promised the workers with decent paying factory jobs in Chicago while the Chicago Defender projected a better life as a whole, in the north. (Chicago Defender is a Chicago-based weekly newspaper started in the 1900’s for African American readers primarily)
As musicians too came in for regular’ music lessons’ and the demand for a more hard driving and uptempo live music in sophisticated surroundings increased, the result is the Chicago style of jazz music of the 1920’s.

Eager to see what Chicago Jazz is all about we had the most musically spectacular experience at Andy’s Jazz Club and Restaurant.

The jazz band performs…

How I love grand pianos!

The green drum set. Ain’t it gorgeous?

Dinner at Andy’s – Crab Cake Duo, Cajun Shrimp Risotto, Rosemary Rack of Lamb, Dueling Fish Tacos, Duck breast Jambalaya

Andy’s Jazz Club and it’s walls. Club-decor.